As proponents of the Wisdom of Crowds, it is only fitting that we dedicate a post to the X Prize, which is quietly revolutionizing the way in which we manage breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.

The classic manner of fostering a breakthrough is to determine what needs to be done (find a way to travel in space, for example) and get “your best people on it” working night and day until it’s accomplished. Of course, looking throughout history we can see the number of inventions and innovations that came about with a different (or no) purpose in mind, many times just by accident (from Penicillin to lasers, the number is too high to list here).

Enter the X PRIZE Foundation, which decided that the best way to bring radical breakthroughs for the good of humanity was to hold competitions open to everyone, and let the wisdom of crowds work its magic.

The most famous X Prize was the Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight, which awarded $10,000,000 for Tier One, which was able to accomplish it twice successfully in a 10 day period.

X Prizes exist in Medicinal, Space and Automotive fields, with future ones in the works for human health, global poverty, and more.

For those who are interested, the idea was taken from the Orteig Prize, which offered $25,000 for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris, and which was won by the then-unknown Charles Lindbergh.

We at Dumbagent are happy prizes such as this exist, and believe the more there are the better humanity will be in the long term.